Flower For Your Thoughts
by Mathias Kekse
Summary: Soulmate Au: When you get hurt your soulmate blooms flowers The Paladins are meant to be together and their connection is deeper than friendship.
1. Chapter 1

Everybody had a soulmate.

Some had more than others, of course, and not all of them were romantic. But they all had one thing in common: when one of the soulmates received a wound, the other would bloom flowers. Of course, while everybody had a soulmates, some were dead before they met their significant other. For a long time, Shiro thought that this was his case. Which wasn't bad, but he did feel like he was missing out on something, cut off from everybody else as his friends set aside vases to hold the flowers from their soulmates as a way of hoping that they got better and healed quickly. When he got into a fight in school he'd stared at the split lip in the mirror for hours wondering if there was anybody, anybody at all who was sprouting flowers from their lips right now, if somebody even existed.

And then, when he was in his teens, it was like a garden was blooming from his knees and elbows. Flowers of all colors were placed in vases all around the house, and many nights Shiro was would wake up and cry as he looked around his room, knowing that he wasn't alone, that there were people out there for him and he just had to find them.

When he went to Kerberos, he thought it would be a short trip. He had waited years to learn know he had soulmates, and that had made him content enough to wait to find them. Fate always had a plan, and these days almost nobody would put their lives on hold just so that they could find one person lost in the crowd of the world, so Shiro didn't either. At this point in his life, he was no longer sprouting bouquets at any given time, but that was a good thing. It meant that whoever his soulmate was, they were okay right now. So he would be okay during the trip to Kerberos.

He was not okay.

Bruises never became flowers, and for a while Shiro was comforted by this or his soulmate would be covered in flowers by now.

As time went on, as Shiro became the Champion and fought for his life daily, he eventually forgot to think of his soulmate. Then again, for a while there, he seemed to forget himself too. He was terrified constantly but never willing to give in, keeping his honor throughout the entire torturous year.

And some nights, he'd wake up and the cells would be quiet and the guards would be patrolling a different hall and he'd look down to see a small flower in the dark, bloodstained world that was his life and he'd weep for what was left of the rest period, knowing that it meant something important, something about love, but not knowing why.

oOo

When Lance started coming home from school looking like he'd robbed a flower store, his mother had sat him down and explained soulmates to him. A hopeless romantic, even at such a young age, he became enamoured with the concept. He dried the flowers and pressed them in between books, sorting them by color. Red, yellow, green, purple. Lance was certain that he had four soulmates. Four amazing people who were probably amazing and would think he was amazing and they'd be beautiful together. He couldn't wait to find them.

Lance had known Hunk for months before they found out they were soulmates to each other. They'd been eating lunch, Lance chatting about girls while Hunk listened politely.

"Uh, Lance?" Hunk had said, something weird in his voice.

"What, I'm sorry, I just honestly think that all girls just are pretty, period. Sorry for not having much of a preference."

"Yeah, that's great, but you have some…" Hunk scratched at the bridge of his nose to point out where something was on Lance, but Lance was more interested in the small purple flowers spreading across Hunk's face.

"You might want to check yourself first." Lance had responded, but reached up to see what Hunk was talking about. His picked a flower off of himself, the same color as the ones on Hunk. Of the four different colored flowers he had, the purple ones came most often. Lance figured Purple was probably some daredevil saving the world or something at the rate they racked up cuts.

This had lead to an insightful conversation on soulmates as the two teens talked about flowers and how Purple needed to take better care of themself. There had also been an interesting event that night when Lance had curiously - when Hunk wasn't looking, of course - grabbed a knife and made a quick and mostly painless cut on his arm and watched as blue narcissus flowers bloomed on the other boy's arm. Hunk had promptly freaked out when he spun around and saw Lance with the knife, which lead to _another_ insightful conversation, this one about how self-harm helped no one and there were others things to do that would actually make things better before Hunk saw Lance grinning and looked down at the flowers spread on his arm.

Lance didn't find out which of his flowers Hunk was until Lance was being picked on for how he wasn't 'supposed' to be in the Galaxy Garrison and Hunk had tried to diffuse the growing tension. The other guy threw the first punch, and Hunk had punched back in self-defense. Then the guy had a knife.

Lance stared at the yellow hibiscuses in the waiting room as Hunk got a few stitches. But, as they say, you should've seen the other guy.

Pidge was forced into the Soulmate Squad when the three of them are researching about theoretical planets and what to do when one gets into the atmosphere or lands on it. This time, it's Lance who notices it, and at first he doesn't point out the purple flowers on Hunk's right arm. It's purple, it happens all the time. But then as he watches, Hunk babbling on about protocol, the flowers keep growing, getting bigger than they ever have, more and more blooming and showing no sign of stopping. Lance feels something crawling across his skin and his hand shoots to his own arm and is greeted by petals.

"Shit."

While the word was on the tip of Lance's tongue, it was Pidge who said it. Pidge, who wasn't directing the word at Hunk or Lance, but instead at his own arm that was in the exact same condition as theirs. It was now that Hunk seemed to realize what was going on and fell out of his seat. Pidge took one look at Hunk and Lance's arms and walked out of the room. For the first time in years, Lance and Hunk dry their flowers and press them and place vases all around the room, wishing and hoping and praying that Purple is okay. Later, Lance cornered Pidge about it and Pidge declared that he has more to worry about than his soulmate.

When Pidge gets a papercut, Lance blooms green cymbidium orchids.

It isn't long after that the other two soulmates make themselves known.

They arrive at what must be Keith's house and place Shiro ( _The_ Takeshi Shirogane!) on the bed.

"Hey, Hunk, Pidge, looks like we're not the only one doing wild and crazy stuff tonight!" Lance all but sings and his gestures to red anemones on his hand.

"Yeah, but Red's always getting scrapes and cuts." Hunk says back, gently rubbing the petals between his fingers. Pidge plucks the flower off altogether.

"Why." Keith deadpanned, and there is anger in his voice. The other three conscious people look over at the dropout. His hands are paused in the middle of cleaning and bandaging a scrape on his hand. Keith's eyes dart to Shiro, and the others look too. His flesh hand has the red flower, and it is only now that Lance realizes what a scar across the nose, a missing arm _means_.

oOo

Shiro wakes up missing nearly a year of his life and his right arm. In the empty space left by both he has a robotic prosthetic and terrible memories that haunt him in every shadow and within the lids of his eyes. He's also not alone. There are four kids, and recognizes he one of them as Keith and his eyes stay too long on another that looks just like Matt.

It is only once they start hiking to the weird energy signature that one of the new ones, Hunk, steps aside and holds up a pressed flower. He keeps them in a book, he tells Shiro, the flowers from his soulmates, and he never leaves his room without it. He explains to Shiro that the purple one is his. And then holds up flowers for each of the others who had been in the cabin, saying that they're all connected, all soulmates. He asks Shiro if he's had any of the flowers. Not for a while (at least, Shiro thinks it's been a while), but the protected blossoms match with the blooming memories of better times when he had more hope than fear.

Shiro flies away with his soulmates in a giant metal lion and wonders if he finally lost it and this is just a dream, a coping method. He decides he doesn't care.

They arrive at a forgotten palace on a planet so far from Earth one could never even dream of it. They enter and awaken two beings that are the last of their kind from what would have been an eternal sleep. They fall out surrounded in beds of perfectly preserved flowers.


	2. Chapter 2

Allura wakes up with petals caressing her skin and a pair of arms catching her as she falls forward.

There are five strangers standing before her, and for a moment she thinks they're Altean. But they don't have any markings in the corner of their eyes, and their ears are all wrong - close to their head, small, with rounded edges like some mythological creature. Of course, it was far more likely they were simply a different species. The one who caught her says something that was probably supposed to be flirtatious, but she isn't really listening, too busy with the fact that there are intruders in her castle. How had they gotten past the guards? Why were the guards? Why had she been in a cryopod? She barely hesitates in taking out the person holding her and immediately starts demanding answers. The others hopefully won't attack if one of their own is on the line. And then they mention the Blue Lion. Nothing is right.

She rushes to the console in order to get some answers, as the intruders don't seem hostile and don't seem to have any information either. She is overwhelmingly relieved when she finds that she wasn't the only one in stasis. Allura quickly releases Coran's pod and he jumps out with as much grace as he usually has. Between trying to confront the aliens so quickly after being in cryosleep and the flowers on the floor, he makes a less than flattering display of his skills. But Coran is a hard man to make falter and he continues to try and appear intimidating and in control. It soothes a little bit of the fear in Allura.

Just in time for the fear to hit her full force as she sees how long she's been asleep.

The memories flood back.

Coran had just returned from the front lines sporting an ugly gash on his side. He'd been rushed straight to the sleep chamber for healing. Allura had looked sadly at the orange flowers on her. They had finally stopped growing and she pulled them off. Her father had a similar clump on his side, but busied himself with helping her. How funny it was, that they had the same soulmate. It made sense though. Coran and King Alfor had known each other for years, were closer than simply advisor and King, and had both mourned over the last flowers they would ever bleed for her mother. When Alfor had found out that Coran was also the soulmate to Allura, he had been pleased. Coran had take in straight to his heart, determined to take care of not just his young charge, but his young solemate.

After the flowers were cleaned up, Allura's father had placed her as well into the cryopods, saying he would hopefully be back soon.

He obviously hadn't ever made it back.

As the memory ended, Allura fell to her knees and wept.

Coran ran over, putting his arms around her comfortingly. It was gone, all of Altea. They were the last of their kind. For this being such a horrible revelation, a terrible thing to wake up to, the room they were in smelt too good. Gentle, foreign fragrances wafted through the air. She had woken up surrounded by flowers, but there had been none in her pod when it'd been sealed on her. Where had they come from?

Allura gently pushed Coran away to inspect them. The aliens were doing the same. They were cradling the blossoms in their hands, matching looks of confusion on their faces.

"Wait, wait, these are mine." The one in yellow said holding up similarly color flowers.

"Same over here." The brown-haired one had his arms filled with blue flowers.

There were five different color altogether: red, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Allura scooped a few up. It seemed purple was the dominating color out of the lot with many varying shades and sizes. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight. Telling the health of another by the flowers you bloomed was required knowledge on Altea, and some of the flowers were incredibly big with vibrant colors.

"What do you mean by 'yours'?" Allura asked. The five aliens looked at each other before the one black-haired one stepped forward. Her eyes snapped to his arm, metallic and in a style that reminded her of the Galra's technology. He knelt down on the floor so that he was on eye level with her, and despite herself Allura stayed on the ground.

"I'm almost as confused as you are, Princess," He said, head bowed ever so slightly. "I am Takeshi Shirogane. A few days ago, days I can barely remember, I escaped from the Galra Empire. When I returned to my home planet, they found me." Shirogane gestured to the younger ones around them. The blue flower one had now laid down in the flowers and was waving his arms and legs, making an empty space around him and yelling about making a 'flower angel'. "And apparently we're all soulmates. Together. If these flowers mean the same thing to your species as they do to us, then you and the other are connected to us too."

It was a lot to process.

In the end, Allura decides that getting the lions together was more important that worrying about flowers. She pushes it all to the back of her head.

oOo

After the lions are found and Voltron is formed for the first time in over 10,000 years, Coran and Allura return to the sleep chamber to clean up what's left of their time in stasis. The flowers, for all they're worth, have only just barely started to show signs that they are in need of water. Allura starts to make quick work of them, grabbing as many as she can and throwing them away. Coran does so too. If the new human Paladins truly are their soulmates, then there will be plenty more where this came from.

He is about to dump more of the flowers when he sees it.

Coran freezes.

His fingers shake as he reaches into alien flora in his arms picks out a familiar blossom. It was a pastel pink juniberry. Allura and Alfor were both his soulmates, and both had the same flower. This had caused a good amount of confusion and panic for the Altean, who would immediately embark on a mission to find out what was wrong with either of them as soon as he realized the flower had bloomed. But there was a way to tell the two flowers apart. And this one, this was definitely the King's.

"Coran? What is it?" Allura walked over as Coran's arms dropped their burden in favor of holding the flower while the other hand covered his mouth. He didn't answer as she looked at the flower cradled in his hand. He didn't move as Allura started to frantically search through the flowers that still blanketed the floor, making an area as she collected the juniberries. A final piece of Alfor, and if the size of the flowers to be believed, they were from the very wounds that killed him.

Allura cleaned the rest of the flowers by herself and then left Coran alone. He sat there for a moment longer, drinking in the scent of the flowers before finally getting back up. Perhaps there was no better time to mourn than now, but he couldn't. Alfor would've wanted Coran to pick himself back up. They were the universe's last hope, and he'd be damned if let a long-dead king keep him down. Still, there was the question of what to do with the flowers. They had thrown the others away because they were from the Paladin's wounds from long ago, but the usual Altean tradition from thousands of years ago was to burn them. It was said that the smoke would find its way to one's soulmate and give them aid. But Alfor wasn't alive, the smoke would not bring aid to a corpse.

Coran confronted Paladin Number Two, or 'Hunk'. When Coran had question about the flowers earlier, Hunk had taken out a book and showed which ones represented who. Altea had gone nearly completely digital before… well, before. Books were few and far between and those that would be found in the castle were far too old to be used for anything than carefully leafing through.

Hunk didn't comment on the flower, but let Coran use his book to press a few of them. He did give a sympathetic smile and told Coran that within a few weeks they'd be okay to take out and perhaps display.

Coran burned the rest.


	3. Chapter 3

"Okay, no, I am not going back in there." Lance had his arms folded defiantly, and he wasn't the only one. Pidge and Hunk were united with him on this front,

"Just because you're no good doesn't mean you should give up. How else do you learn?" Allura attempted, once again, to cajole them into getting back into the training room.

"No way, that gladiator is just impossible. I'm a tech geek, not some warrior." Pidge chimed in, one hand on his bayard as if he would fight to not go back into the room. Lance and Hunk looked like they were willing to fight too, as if this was the biggest battle of their life that they couldn't afford to lose.

"Perhaps they could use a bit of a break. I know you said Altean children can do this, but we're not Altean." Shiro said in hopes of getting Allura to listen. Out of the paladins, he was the best at the 'training exercise', but he was often fighting himself more than half of that time. The PTSD had a habit of breaking in at the worst times and messing with Shiro in the worst ways.

"How do we even know this is possible? I haven't seen you guys getting beat up by weird robots that are way too strong to possible be able to beat." Lance pouted. Allura raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Would you like a demonstration then?" She took a step forward and Shiro felt a bit of the instincts that he didn't remember creating press at him, warning him.

"Now now Princess, there's no need for that." Coran placed a hand on Allura's shoulder. "However, if it's truly a demonstration they'd like, I've be happy to comply." Allura gave a smile.

"That'd be lovely. I think all they really need is to see that it's possible and give them a boost of confidence."

"No, we really don't. Can't we just, I don't know, practice mixing chemicals by mixing cooking ingredients? You, do have ingredients, right? A kitchen?" Hunk suggested.

"No need for that," Coran waved off the suggestion. "I've been getting rusty anyway. A nice exercise would do my bones some good." Shiro traced Coran's gaze as it lingered for a moment on Lance's bayard before he went over to the armory. "Head up to the observation room, I'll be out and ready to spar in just a tick."

Up in the observation room they all crowded around the window as Coran stepped into the middle of the floor. He was wearing armor that resembled the paladins, though its color scheme was more like his usual uniform than the white and black. He was holding what at first looked simply like a staff before the ends lit up with energy.

"Ready whenever you are princess." He called up to them.

"I'm setting the gladiator to the level that any Altean soldier would be able to fight." Allura called down to Coran, who returned it with a smile.

"I would be offended if you did anything lower."

The gladiator sprang to life, but this time it wasn't holding the familiar staff Shiro and the others had grown accustomed to seeing it with. Instead it held a glowing blade. It made a rush for Coran, who easily darted underneath the sweep of the blade and swung his staff into its side. Of course, it was a robot, so it didn't do too much damage and it was quick to kick him, a kick strong enough to fling him across the room. Coran took the chance to land a solid hit on the robot's calf with one of the energized sides of the staff before landing on his feet with the grace of a cat. He didn't allow the gladiator to assess the situation, sprinting back towards it.

That was about all Shiro was able to get before he started being dragged into flashback. The robot wasn't a robot, but a Galra in the arena. Coran was one of the fellow 'competitors' in the arena, face a blur of a person Shiro never knew. The crowd's screams and yells are a single being that desires only blood and brutality. Vaguely, in a removed way in a place that was anywhere but there, Shiro's breath was picking up. But there, he was almost calm.

Shiro was pulled back into the moment by something gently crawling up his shoulder. He jumped a bit and the metal arm flew to grab whatever it was a little too quickly to be normal. Luckily everybody else in the room was too busy looking at Coran to notice. There was definitely something beneath his hand, and for a moment Shiro feared it might have been one of the mice. He gently grabbed it and moved it into his line of sight. It was another flower, but not one of the ones he recognized. This one had only two petals, wide and fat, that started black in the middle but eventually became a bright, neon orange on the very edge. The center of the flower was a yellow and when Shiro brought it closer to his face had a distinctly fruity smell. A bunch of foreign, definitely not Earth-fruits, but fruits nonetheless. Looking up, he saw that everybody else in the room had the same flower on their shoulders, but they were all so engrossed in the fighting that they had yet to notice. Walking close to the window, Shiro could see that Coran was still fighting the metal gladiator. It looked like it wouldn't be able to continue fighting for too much longer, though, sporting several gashes on it and one arm completely lobbed off (no,no, stay in the now Shiro). Coran looked like he was mostly getting bruises from the fight, the worst thing he had being a cut across his shoulder.

That made sense.

Shiro knew that Coran grew flowers when one of them was hurt, but for some reason it had never occurred to him that, like any soulmate, it worked both ways.

In the end, Coran whooped the robot's mechanical butt and they had to endure an extra hour of training that day.

oOo

The conversation happened after Coran evaluated their rooms.

Coran had been going to each of the paladin's rooms in turn to make sure that they had a set up made for battle. It was important that, as paladins of Voltron, they were able to get ready at the drop of the hat… especially when they made up 99% of the Altean fighting force despite being humans. Coran had done this type of thing a bunch back in the day, making sure every new recruit understood the importance that came in preparation. As he went from room to room, of course Coran noticed it. Some of them were a little subtler than others, but it was always there.

Keith had the flowers pressed in a drawer, one of each.

Hunk had them dried and placed around his doorway.

Pidge had a few scattered in her closet.

Even Shiro kept some right by his pillow so that they were the first thing he saw when he woke up.

But Lance, Lance was on a whole other level than everybody else.

The doorway was decorated with flowers. Hanging from nearly every inch of the ceiling were bouquets drying. A corner of the floor and beneath the bed were dedicated to the flower presses that Hunk had built for that exact reason. To put it plainly, it looked like Spring had thrown up in Lance's room and then started to actually grow there. The paladins stood in the doorway, all having already seen Lance's room. Lance himself was on his bed, in a draw-me-like-your-Altean-women pose with a red anemone (still fresh) between his teeth. And Coran? Coran stared around the room for a few ticks before running down the hallway.

"Does this mean my room's good?" Lance asked, pulling the flower out of his teeth. Coran soon returned, this time dragging a very confused-looking Allura along. She looked into Lance's room and outright screamed. But, like, a girly scream. The kind that means you've seen something really cool that you can't get enough of.

"Oh my, Lance where did you get all of these?" Allura gently trailed her fingers across a few petals. Lance shrugged.

"From you guys." She lifted one of the juniberries to her eyes to inspect a little closer. "I had to throw out a ton of anemones and crocuses. Honestly it's mostly habit by now."

"That's so interesting." Allura's hand rested on one of Coran's blooms. "Back on Altea, the soul flowers were only kept if the mate had already died and were usually used for the funeral."

"Really?" Shiro brushed against a few orchids. By now they were all in Lance's (rather small) room. Coran nodded.

"Oh yes. It wasn't exactly considered bad luck to keep them, but why keep them when you could burn them?" Hunk looked shocked.

"What? Burn them? I mean, if you get too many sure, but there's still some stigma against that in some places of Earth." Now it was the Altean's turns to look shocked. "A few early civilizations believed that burning soulmate blooms was bad luck, or like the equivalent of cutting off your connection and stuff. A way to say that you want nothing to do with your soulmate."

"I knew a few people at the Garrison who would do that." Shiro added. "Not because they didn't want their soulmates, but a lot of them feared that on some of their missions they wouldn't come back. They didn't want to die knowing they were letting down their soulmate, so might as well sever your connection."

"Back on Altea, burning was seen as the best thing you could do for your soulmate." Allura looked almost horrified at the idea of burning flowers with such a meaning behind it. "When you burned your soul flowers, ancient legends said that the smoke would travel to your soulmate and aid them in their hour of need. Of course, that was first invented when Alteans were confined to our home planet, but the legend holds… had held on for thousands of years."

"Well, on Earth taking care of the flowers was considered good." Lance gestured to his flowers. "Putting them in vases, pressing them, drying them."

"It's not like it matters all that much." Pidge commented. "I mean, they're just flowers. There's not even any logical sense that's been found behind them."

"Perhaps not on Earth, but Ancient Alteans believed that soulmates were created of the same stardust." Coran looked off into the distance, as if he could see the stars through the walls of the castleship. "Of course, that was disproven long ago, but before Zarkon attacked researches had been looking into whether quintessence was a factor in it."

"Wow. That, actually sounds kinda cool." Lance glanced around at the flowers once more.

"Yes, quite amazing." Allura gave a sad smile. "Too bad Coran and I are the last two to carry on such ideas."

The room gained a moment of soft mourning for the long lost Alteans. Coran broke the silence by proceeding with his inspection of Lance's room, and by the end Lance's room is 30% more organized and a few flowers less than it had been.

While looking over the castleship's floor plans, Pidge finds a room specifically dedicated to burning soulmate blooms.

Keith drops a few flowers into the pit and watches the smoke rise. He wasn't doing anything with them anyway.


End file.
